MSE News: Police close fake online stores targeting Christmas shoppers

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"More than 1,200 scam websites targeting Christmas shoppers were shut down today in an unprecedented online raid ..."

Read the full story:
Police close fake online stores targeting Christmas shoppers

fermi

Good.

But a shame no-one can shut down the China based ones that regularly spam these boards.

edgex

The PCeU is now working with Nominet and other leading domain name registrars to prevent the future fraudulent registration of sites using false or misleading details

how difficult can that be?
if its a .uk domain name, make sure that its uk address & telephone number details.
they could surely check that the registration firms are only accepting uk cards for payments as well

angelizz

What worries and upsets me most is that "no arrests have been made" - which means that these fraudsters have taken a huge amount of money from customers and the worst that has happened to them is that they have had their (fake) site closed down. It will take them about 2 days to get another hugely convincing (to most people) site built, and then the process starts again.

Janekoal

Does anyone know where the scammed people stand in terms of getting money back on debit/credit cards?

78mjt

Janekoal wrote: »

Does anyone know where the scammed people stand in terms of getting money back on debit/credit cards?

Ultimately we all have a responsibility for our actions when shopping online. If something is too good to be true then it generally is. For example, the Ugg sites that spring up and disappear on a weekly basis have Uggs at about £35 - with the images and copy taken directly from the official Ugg site. If something is around 75% off then any right-minded shopper will know it is either a) fakes, or worse, b) a non-existant product. Remember that you are giving over your credit card details, maybe with a large limit (unless you're like me!)....

zierisaver

An interesting article, I wonder how much man-time it took and cost to do this. Ultimately, the web is a pretty lawless place - would we be better having that money spent on educating people to spot these sites? Then those that chose to waste their money on them are not also wasting tax-payers money on trying to get them closed down?

gegm

zierisaver wrote: »

An interesting article, I wonder how much man-time it took and cost to do this. Ultimately, the web is a pretty lawless place - would we be better having that money spent on educating people to spot these sites? Then those that chose to waste their money on them are not also wasting tax-payers money on trying to get them closed down?

I think you're being a bit cynical here. Some of the sites are very, very convincing, and not everyone is as web savvy as the next man. The web can be a great place to save time, money and have huge choice, but it can also be a very scary place sometimes. To close down such a large number of sites should, IMO be applauded :T

bp78

gegm wrote: »

I think you're being a bit cynical here. Some of the sites are very, very convincing, and not everyone is as web savvy as the next man. The web can be a great place to save time, money and have huge choice, but it can also be a very scary place sometimes. To close down such a large number of sites should, IMO be applauded :T

Here here. :beer:

edgex

gegm wrote: »

I think you're being a bit cynical here. Some of the sites are very, very convincing, and not everyone is as web savvy as the next man. The web can be a great place to save time, money and have huge choice, but it can also be a very scary place sometimes. To close down such a large number of sites should, IMO be applauded :T

so if they arnt very web savvy, dont shop online
or at least dont shop at sights found randomly on google

would these same people buy stuff from someone just stood in the street?


if people want to buy these sorts of items online, theres some really easy things they can do:
> look at the sites of the mainstream retailers, ie. the high st names, amazon, play etc
> look at the official site, & see if they have a list of authorised resellers
> check that there are full & proper contact details - that means a uk address, telephone number, proper email address, not a gmail or hotmail address
> if they want to check a site theyve come across elsewhere, google the actual site name to see if it appears on MSE, & do a whois search to see who owns the domain name



for some reason this link dosnt work:
Spend online without fear: Buy Safely Online

edgex

angelizz wrote: »

What worries and upsets me most is that "no arrests have been made" - which means that these fraudsters have taken a huge amount of money from customers and the worst that has happened to them is that they have had their (fake) site closed down. It will take them about 2 days to get another hugely convincing (to most people) site built, and then the process starts again.

there have been no arrests as the fraudsters are not in the uk

if the police & nominet can come up with a decent way of 'securing' the .uk domain names, it will make the sites less convincing